| life - listed chronologically:: Comments on New Shows, Part 2 |
[Apr. 19th, 2004|01:10 am] |
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Here's some more comments on the new anime season (mirrored from my anime blog as usual. For LJ people, here is the feed.).
 Sensei no Ojikan - This is quite a cute little show. It reminds me a lot of Azumanga Daioh in the pacing. It's about a 27 year old teacher who still looks like a little girl. It's pretty funny and the nosebleed in one scene was one of the best ever. This one doesn't seem to have a lot of substance, but it is quite fun to watch. So I'll probably watch at least a few more episodes.
 Midori no Hibi - I wrote about this show back when I first found out about it. Sawamura Seiji is a 17 year old high school student who is terrible at romance. One morning he wakes up to find that his right hand is gone and in its place is a girl. It seems she has had a crush on him since childhood and somehow ended up there. Despite the absurd premise the show is actually quite cute and very funny (and not at all what I expected). It's definitely one to check out.
 Bakuretsu Tenshi - A new action show from Gonzo. It's the year 2050 and the story follows four females as they fight crime in future Tokyo. On yeah, and their cook, who is hired in the first episode and ends up getting caught up in their lives. This show is pretty fun. So far I think it's just going to end up being one of those fun action shows where I get to see lots of things go boom, but with Gonzo one never can tell.
So there are another three. Still some shows to comment on, but I'll leave that for next time. Oh yes, and the images are thanks to anime-source.com, a really nice site with lots of reviews and a nice forum. Click on the pictures above to get to their pages there.
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| life - listed chronologically:: Comments on New Shows, Part 1 |
[Apr. 15th, 2004|01:55 pm] |
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(Mirror of post on the anime blog)
I've watched a bunch of the shows that just started recently and so here are some of my thoughts on them so far. Note this is all based on only seeing one or two episodes, so I'll try and update if anything changes greatly.
Monster - Based on manga by Naoki Urasawa, this show is about a doctor who gets fights back against hospital politics, and ends up paying the price for it. I've only seen one episode, so some of my information on the show is from the link above. It sounds like the show definitely has a twist or two, some of which is hinted at in the first episode. I'll keep watching this one at least for a few more episodes. Also, the show gets bonus points by having David Sylvian do the end theme.  Tenge Tenjou - I admit it, I like fighting anime. And as Jasc says at the beginning of his review: "An awesome opening, great characters, fights that don't put me to sleep, and boobies? I'm sold!" This show is just fun. It's like Ikkitousen, but it doesn't suck. Two delinquents who love to fight show up at Toudou Gakuen, a school for martial arts training and a fighter's paradise. The school seems to have some dark secret to do with the fighters there, but it's only been hinted at so far. This show is also based on a manga that has 10 volumes out so far, so there should be quite a bit of story for them to work with. And Maya Natsume's transformation scene in the first episode is a classic.  Aishiteruze Baby - So far this is my favorite show of the season. This was one of those shows that I knew nothing of before watching it and it completely overwhelmed me. Based on a manga by Yoko Makai, the show is the story of Kippei, a teenage boy who cares only about girls (and they all seem to love him). One day his 5 year old cousin Yuzuyu shows up, having been left by her mother. At that point it becomes his job to take care of Yuzuyu. The show is very well done, and I found the first episode very moving. This is one I can't wait to watch more of.
That's it for this post, next up I'll take a look at Midori no Hibi, Hi no Tori, Kyou Kara Maou, and Kono Minikukumo Utsukushii Sekai (Gainax's new show).
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| life - listed chronologically:: When Yard Ornaments Go Strange |
[Apr. 12th, 2004|11:30 am] |
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The Hartford Courant has an article about some of the stranger yard ornaments one can get these days, including headless, armless children.
The once-imagined lovely garden is occupied with huge, ugly, warty frogs; bears doing squat lifts; sobbing angels; and gnomes, gnomes and more gnomes, multiplying like nymphomaniac nymphets high on Scott's Fertilizer.
And into this already strange and scary flower bed marches a parade of headless, armless children - boy figures in overalls and girl figures especially frightening in their short white socks and red Mary Janes.
They're called "outdoor statuary" or "yard ornaments," but to anyone who basks in the glow of a buttercup held under a child's chin or smiles at the sight of a toddler picking daisies, these jardinieres are better suited to a gardening straight-to-video called "Night of the Living Deadheads."
"It's human nature to decorate one's environment," says Ellin Goetz, who runs a landscape architecture business in Naples, Fla. [The Hartford Courant]
I so would love to find some of the headless children planters and just put them around the yard for when my parents come home. I can just see them pulling in late at night after driving and finding them invading the yard. Another ornament mentioned is the Digger Dog, which is supposed to look like a dog with its head down a hole. According to the description it "barks, whines, stomps his back foot and (oops!) passes wind." And you can set it to be motion activated to "get a good laugh from neighbors, guests, and passersby."
This gives me a bunch of ideas. How about hands that look like a zombie trying to claw its way out of the ground (or maybe just a face peering out from the dirt)? It could be animated so passersby could hear the moans of the dead and maybe an occasional "brainsssss."
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| life - listed chronologically:: Cajun Meat Loaf |
[Apr. 11th, 2004|07:30 pm] |
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This recipe is based on one that's in this little book called Great Flavors of Louisiana, my mom has tweaked the recipe a little bit and it's quite amazing.
Cajun Meat Loaf
- 1/2 stick butter, melted
- 1 cup yellow onion, chopped
- 1/2 cup green pepper, chopped
- 2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1 1/4 lbs ground chuck or round
- 1 egg, beaten
- 3/4 cup catsup
- 1-2 tsps Lea & Perrins
- 3/4 cup sharp Cheddar cheese, grated (optional)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In skillet with butter, add next 7 ingredients; cook until vegetables are tender, stirring often. In a small bowl or measuring cup combine the catsup and Lea & Perrins. In another bowl, combine meat, egg, oats, half cup catsup mixture, and cheese. Blend in vegetables. Form into a loaf shape and put on a pan (you can optionally put it into a 9 1/2x5x3-inch loaf pan, but I like it better this way). Bake for 20 minutes; spread top with quarter cup catsup mixture. Turn oven down to 350 degrees and cook for 40-45 minutes more.
Some notes. If you think just using cayenne will be too spicy you can use a cajun spice mix instead. My mom can't have real spicy things, so that's what she does. Many times she'll also use a mixture of meats, mixing in some ground pork or veal (or both).
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| life - listed chronologically:: OW |
[Apr. 11th, 2004|06:20 pm] |
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Wow, what a long weekend. Since my parents are away, I invited some friends from Boston to come down here and hang out this weekend. It was pretty fun. I made dinner last night (mmmm, cajun meatloaf. I'll post the recipe later) and people drank lots and we watched anime till some very late hour. Definitely lots of fun. I think the next time I invite folks down for anime I'm just going to show one show all night, I'm thinking One Piece, because pirates rock.
On the OW side of things I've been fighting a sinus headache for about 20 hours so far. Trying to keep myself hydrated to see if that helps some, but it's driving me nuts.
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| life - listed chronologically:: Happy Bunny Day |
[Apr. 11th, 2004|09:30 am] |
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I'm not a particularly religious person, so don't really pay much attention to Easter unless I'm with my family. But I do wish I had gotten a chocolate bunny so that I can bites its ears off. Then its feet. Then its head (finally putting it out of its misery). And then the rest of the remains. And it better not be one of those hollow easter bunnies either. Solid chocolate is what it is all about.
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| life - listed chronologically:: Poor Easter Bunny |
[Apr. 8th, 2004|10:10 pm] |
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From ellen:
Minister Says Play Wasn't Offensive
A church in western Pennsylvania trying to teach about the crucifixion of Jesus performed an Easter show with actors whipping the Easter bunny and breaking eggs, upsetting several parents and young children.
People who attended Saturday's performance at Glassport's memorial stadium quoted performers as saying, "There is no Easter bunny," and described the show as being a demonstration of how Jesus was crucified.
Melissa Salzmann, who brought her 4-year-old son J.T., said the program was inappropriate for young children. "He was crying and asking me why the bunny was being whipped," Salzmann said.
Patty Bickerton, the youth minister at Glassport Assembly of God, said the performance wasn't meant to be offensive. [NBC10.com]
No, not meant to be offensive, just to traumatize little kids.
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| life - listed chronologically:: Anti-Stupid |
[Apr. 8th, 2004|09:55 pm] |
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A parent's group opposing a school program used a picture from The Onion on a pamphlet they sent out, supposedly without realizing it was a joke. A school board trustee is now demanding an apology.
The picture was copied from the Onion, a satirical newspaper from the United States. The headline of the 1998 story says, " '98 homosexual drive nearing goal."
The story, written out of San Francisco, goes on to say children are being successfully recruited into homosexuality because of the "gay lobby's infiltration of America's public schools."
Marilyn Ashworth of STOP said it's concerned the photo represents what will end up in this region's schools if the board goes ahead with its plan.
"We knew it was a gay paper and we hold that even as a joke, the gay community is proud of their advancements into the safe schools program in the U.S.," she said. "We don't think homosexuality in schools is a joke."
Asked whether she believed it was a real photo, Ashworth said the caption included the teacher's name, city, state and grade.
"We researched in depth and that was one of the things we found," she said, noting the group spent seven weeks accumulating research. [London Free Press]
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| life - listed chronologically:: Collaborative Audio Books |
[Apr. 7th, 2004|12:25 am] |
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Last week Adam wrote about the idea of collaborating to create audio books.
collaborative audio books
About a week and a half ago I stumbled onto AKMA's brilliant idea to create an audio-book version of Lawrence Lessig's new book "Free Culture". Bloggers quickly signed up to the collaborative by claiming chapters to read in the posting's comments.
I arrived a bit late to the party, so I didn't get to read a chapter, although there is plenty of room for alternative voices and reads, but that's for later.
I'm a big believer in audio books and 'read' this way frequently. I just finished Dan Brown's 'The DaVinci Code' in about 2 week's time of travelling to my morning radio show whilst listeing in the car. I use my iPod and the iTrip, a snap-on fm-transmitter, so I can enjoy the reading on my car's stereo. It's also much safer.
I listen to lots of stuff on my iPod besides music and audio books. There are interviews and archives of old radio shows. There's even an audio bible. [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]
I've been listening to audio books a bit more lately now that I'm driving up and back to Boston all the time. It can be a nice way to make the almost two hour drive go by quickly. I just finished the second Dark Tower book and have started in on Sarah Vowell's The Partly Cloudy Patriot. But there are some books that aren't in audio format that I wish were. Adam brings up the point that there are lots of books in Project Gutenberg that would provide a good starting point (specifically mentioning the Tom Swift books).
Adam has some ideas about distributing the books that are recorded, but I've been thinking about this from another direction. Having a site for managing and tracking what books are being worked on. A page where users can register and then sign up for chapters of books and upload them when done. I have some other related ideas of letting people rate readers and chapters of books, since more than one person might upload a chapter. I wish I was going to be in town for BloggerCon II so I'd have a chance to chat about this with him, but I'll be stuck down in Hartford. I may just start coding up something for some php practice in the meantime.
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| life - listed chronologically:: New Listening Habits |
[Apr. 5th, 2004|10:45 pm] |
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In other iPod news. The Boston Globe has a cool article about how the iPod has changed people's listening habits.
When thousands of titles are transferred onto the machine's hard drive and in rotation, users say, what happens on the listening end can be aesthetically stimulating, even liberating. This is not necessarily because the tracks are unfamiliar, but because the software's shuffle-play capability juxtaposes them in intriguing ways, not only across an entire 5,000-track collection but within, say, a compilation of blues tunes or Broadway melodies, or even shuffling through only the tracks played in the past 90 days.
In many cases, such specialized playlists can be automatically expanded by iTunes, the companion software that is another vital component of iPod chic. Want to create a continually updated playlist of every song on your iPod that was released during your college years? The machine can be programmed to do that, too. [boston.com]
This is the thing I love about my iPod. I have just about all my music on it. If I'm in the mood to listen to something specific I can easily find it and play it. Though I'm much more likely to be listening to a random set of music that I haven't yet rated or of my favorite songs. Now I want to upgrade to a 40GB iPod, so that I have room to expand my collection and keep it all with me.
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